Sword Art Online: White Rose

Chapter Four; Second in Command

67 days after launch.

HAKU

Garost had collapsed 14 days prior to today, and he had lost all of his memories and knowledge of the outside world when he woke. The cause is unknown but he still knows how to use the Scythe. Which is a stupid weapon to use in my opinion, even after winning that fight against the first floor boss.

On another note, his logic and reasoning behind the Scythe being a mob killer is that it is a heavy weapon that deals a lot of damage with 90+ hit combos. I doubt such skills exist; I'm beginning to wonder if he imagines things so hard that he makes them a reality with chained sword skills and system exploits, or maybe that's what he was talking about. Of course, the extra 3+ damage per consecutive hit actually exists with its 4 second time to cast another skill before reset to +0 damage per sword skill.

Though I wonder; how is he a master with the Scythe?

I'll figure it out later…

I then glance over at him as he leans with his back against a tree, his white hair is blowing in the VR wind, and his white trench coat blows in perfect sync. He looked kind of cool, compared to his real world self; I say that because you'd expect a guy who actually has white hair to be an above average individual – but no, he's as average as average comes.

On another note; I feel like an idiot, but it's his fault for making his question seem like it was being used in a different context – he doesn't even remember how to talk to people anymore but at least he had already explained that he was talking about: 'doing as he says, and helping him find more guild members'.

I could even feel the heat of embarrassment rush to my face after his question, WHAT AN IDIOT!

"Is something wrong?" He asked, with that same smooth voice he spoke with whenever he was feeling kind of down.

"Yes, I don't know why you even need to bother asking, despite knowing there's something wrong, baka." I snapped at him, and he pushed himself upright. He turned to face me directly, his eyes were narrowed and he was obviously suppressing some sort of anger.

"Are you going to help or not?" He asked, his tone said he was serious this time, not about that thing I thought he was talking about – but the guild… yes the guild, even he could be taken seriously sometimes.

"What help am I, anyway?" I asked him, and he just grinned.

"You're my second in command on the guild roster, there has to be a reason for that – what level are you anyway?" He explained, and then asked me his question, what a reckless bastard, to go into battle with me in a party despite not knowing my level. His normal self wouldn't allow that in the same situation. I guess that's my fault for not bringing it up.

"16."

"Good, I forgot to ask your level when we went into the bossfight – which is why I tanked most of the hits, but my awareness kind of sucks… since I didn't get the chance to look at your healthbar in combat; too inattentive." He responded, like he was taking down notes for something.

"What are you going on about?" I asked him, and I felt a pang of regret that disappeared as quickly as it came; I didn't really want to know, even though I already did. He was probably getting his mind set and ready for the next boss fight.

"I'm tallying up the flaws, and what went wrong with the fight against Illfang, to make sure I don't do the same things next time – we would've won sooner and a ton more easily than we did." He explained with a blunt voice and then bit his nail.

That wasn't so bad… "But are you saying that you already forgot about what you put me through?"

"Hm?" He asked, "What did I put you through?"

Oh. My. God.

His head suddenly jerked in one direction as I saw the glint of a player's weapon and Garost immediately reacted with a sidestep, drew his short-sword and finally parried an attack by player. The damage meant to be done was completely negated.

In turn, I drew my mace, slammed it into the chest of a player and watched with horror as he shattered to pieces.

"Relax!" Garost shouted, "They're just bandit NPCs!" He finished, and systemically proceeded to use his lowest level weapon skill and a mediocre sword-skill to cut into the face of a bandit. He ultimately left a massive red gash across their eyes. The bandit then proceeded to explode in a ball of white light and pixel glass.

Meanwhile, I just slammed my mace into the face of a second target, then rose my shield and blocked the hit of a third and final bandit.

Garost then reacted instantaneously to a second target behind him, taking a two steps forward and narrowly dodging a blade – he kept slow-walking forward. Once he was clear enough, he then proceeded to open his UI (User Interface) and equip his Scythe before then closing it and equipping his primary weapon – the Scythe… in the middle of combat.

The boy's white hair flashed suddenly as he charged a sword-skill and slammed the butt of the hilt into the abdomen of his second target, the effect knocked his target back and he spun around – charging a skill at the same time. His blade came downward, and the hook cut the bandit across the chest in a diagonal line. His torso started sliding off; but the process was stopped by the white explosion of his body.

"Last one." Garost grunted, and began putting away his Scythe.

I felt like yelling at him, but I just decided to accept his faith in my abilities to kill three bandits alone – even though he only killed like… two.

Whatever.

I charged the shield, slammed it into the bandit; sending the bastard staggering backwards. Using the same system I had to kill various other mobs, I finished to process with a jab in the chest using a lunge with the mace, and then charged and upwards diagonal hit with the mace that sent the bastard flying into the air. He was still not dead, must've been the leader.

Then, at the worst possible moment to think the situation was over – the bastard shot up to his feet and lunged with both hands wrapped around his blade. I swung my mace, but it was too late. I should have blocked.

And yet; Garost stepped in front of the shortsword, taking the lunge to the abdomen and a mace to the back of his god damned head. Me and the bandit both scored a critical hit – an eternity seemed to pass before time moved again. Garost's health was rapidly dropping but he just stood there and sifted through his inventory while dangerously close to death – then whipped out some sort of healing potion, drank it and was at full health in an instant – but was still taking sustained damage.

I ran around him, slammed my mace into the bandit-leader's skull and he finally went up in a glassy pixel-explosion like the rest of his buddies.

Then I turned and pointed my mace at his face; he was just standing there, quietly looking at the names in his friend's list, but he stopped near the K's and proceeded to stare at this one message.

"Kiri…to." He whispered and I felt a slight smile coming on; Possible memory retention.

"Do you remember him from somewhere?" I asked, and he held up a hand, frowning and rubbing one of his temples – both of his eyes were closed.

"Kirito… Kiri… Kazu… Kazuto… Kirigaya…" He was thinking long and hard – obviously distracted from what the hell just happened. "Kazuto Kirigaya… school guide… beta… username usually always Kirito." He added and turned his head in my direction. His eyes are now open and the look in his eyes showed genuine curiosity rather than indifference and carelessness for the first time since his sudden memory loss… Kawaii.

"Do you know anything about him?" He asked me; that was probably the source of his curiosity – the desire to know more about Kirito… his friend in the real world.

I let out a deep sigh, and pushed aside how annoyed I felt with his current state's stupidity… he was like an entirely different person.

"He's a friend of yours." I answered as bluntly as he would.

Then he nodded slightly, "Do I party with him a lot?"

"Yes." She replied bluntly.

"I'd better send him a message." He stated, and then went through the process of constructing a message.

We stood there in silence for a few moments, then he hit the send button and waited for a few more moments.

"What did it say?" I asked him, sticking my nose into that business.

"Hey, how are you, I lost my memory 14 days ago – forming a guild, reply back to me with a meeting place, date and time and we'll talk." He answered shamelessly, like writing crappy letters and being proud of them was his job.

"That's it?"

"That's all that's needed." He replied bluntly, grabbing me by the cheeks and gently pulling on them. "Who is a cute little warrior with a mace, and adorable violet eyes?!" He asked, with a loving expression "You are! Yes you are!" He stated, and pressed his lips against mine, then ran off into the forest and back towards the road.

…I blushed, and absently touched where he had kissed me… he hadn't done that before – and never like that. He usually resented kissing me, and it felt like we had been drifting apart after Kayaba's announcement, and even before that… maybe this memory loss wasn't so bad... maybe spending the rest of what's left of my life by his side… isn't so bad.

Wait… where did he go? Ugh…

A/N: Please note that after much thought and deciding, after my long break from writing. I decided to write shorter chapters and then proceed to post them without proofreading or rewriting whatsoever. Such is what I decided because of the Fanfic writing style.